NEW DELHI: Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Sunday indicated that the central government is currently working on another stimulus package. While speaking to ANI, the Finance Secretary said that the government keeps monitoring the situation on the ground to evaluate which sector of the economy or part of the population needs what kind of help and then respond accordingly. Ajay Bhushan Pandey also said that the authorities keep taking suggestions from different industry bodies, ministries, trade associations and then after monitoring them, it plans timely measures.

Although Pandey did not give an exact timeframe for when the government will announce the next package, he said, 'Yes, the government was on it and deliberations on further interventions were on.' As the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister stated that country's economy is on the recovery path and is moving towards sustainable growth. September and October data shows that the country has already reached a pre-COVID-19 level, he added.

During the interview, Finance Secretary highlighted that earlier in the last month, the Reserve Bank of India said that the country's economy is likely to contract by 9.5 per cent in the current fiscal. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), GDP has contracted 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the fiscal. Pandey also informed that from October 1, the government has started using electronic invoices. He said that usually 8 lakh invoices were generated daily but on October 20, over 29 lakh electronic invoices were generated.

Asserting that India is moving in the direction of sustained growth, Pandey said, 'we are analysing every sector. Since COVID-19 outbreak, we have been monitoring every sector and also provided early instalments to farmers under PM Kisan Yojana'. He also said that the government has helped employees and employers in their EPF contributions. Ruling out the possibility of any cut in GST rates in near future during the COVID pandemic, Pandey stated that there is the wrong impression that rate cut boosts sales and growth.